Yes, I realise this will probably be a moot point in just over a month. So what. If I don't get it off my chest right now while it's still a valid issue, I'll probably go into myocardial infarction.

What has really irritated me most about this whole thing is how everybody seems to make the assertion that after the Great American NTSC Kill-Off happens, the NTSC sets that aren't connected to an ATSC receiver of some sort will somehow "stop working". Yes, I imagine there will be televisions that "stop working" on that day. TV sets fail every day, somewhere in the world, "digital" broadcast mandate or not. Parts get old, wear out and fail. (Please don't take that statement in any other context than what I mean here.)

So as far as I can tell, the only way that *all* the sets will "stop working" at once is if a huge power surge blows through all the nation's power systems, destroying the power suppy units (and possibly other internal workings) of NTSC sets and radios that receive BTSC sound! Of course such an event is less likely to occur than Motozak II being elected President of the United States........

Too bad the ATSC, NAB, FCC, BNSF, PB&J and any other parties whose names I can abbreviate didn't go with the more logical "without an ATSC receiver, existing televisions will not have anything more to receive" bit instead of the "without an ATSC receiver, existing sets will stop working" bit. Think of all the money people could have saved on brand-new sets if they hadn't thought their existing sets wouldn't function any longer!

I mean, am I the only one who thinks about this stuff?

If your car runs out of gas, does it stop working?

Marketing is a big dumb making machine.

Digital speakers.

Bandwidth when they mean throughput.

With video security as big a machine as it has become, NTSC video isn't going away any time soon.

Broadcasters, for years, no, forever, have tried to make the public think that the world of news, technology, etc. revolves around them. They have never taken a hard look in the mirror and seen how the populace at large ranks broadcasting in the same ranks as used car sales. No offense to anyone that works in the industry, but the golden days of radio and tv are behind us. Licenses are just a commodity to be bought, sold, and traded and air time is just one option for advertisers whom are already shifting to other options.

Without an ATSC converter, the average household will still use their sets to monitor their VCR's, DVD's, etc.

It will take more than DTV to kill NTSC.

I would like to construct an effigy of a marketing guy and then tear it to shreds or set in on fire!!! Marketing slogans stop a thinking mind!!!!!

LOL!!!

Yeah, you are among the few to think about this stuff moto. Welcome to the club!

NTSC has a very long life. If anything, it's going to continue to be viable because it's easily manupulated. The digital stuff is very encumbered with DRM this and that. NTSC is just easy and it's solid. A full frame is 720x486, and if you do it S-video, or component, you get all those pixels. Modern sets will display 640x480 of those nicely enough. Totally useful, cheap and available.

My DVR is NTSC, the one I'm going to build will be NTSC. So far, I've not seen any compelling reason to ditch my NTSC investment. I'll just add higher resolution stuff when it's cheap and call it good.

As long as there is surviving archival footage on NTSC videotapes, the format will be around. It just may not be common in a consumer setting, in the same way that a lot of people today do not have any way to play records or project motion picture film at home.

By the way, I hope nobody is too offended by my effigy fantasy. I haven't witnessed an effigy burning in person since I was seven, and I think that I'm long overdue for another one!!

...I hope nobody is too offended by my effigy fantasy. I haven't witnessed an effigy burning in person since I was seven, and I think that I'm long overdue for another one!!

They have on in the Nevada desert every year!!!

http://www.burningman.com/

I think it was funny. Marketing people can be a major league PITA.

My wife and I will do one of these, from time to time.

I actually witnessed the Burning of the the giant effigy back in 2002. Due to various circumstances, I haven't gone back since then. Thus, I was wrong about not witnessing an effigy being burned since age 7.

The effigy burning that I witnessed at age 7 took place on a street corner right outside my aunt and uncle's house in Valparaiso (Chile). I am not sure who the effigy was supposed to represent; however I do remember that the effigy had a bag of coins. When the bag burned, the coins went all over the street, and people rushed to snap them up. My mom, who also witnessed this event worried that the effigy might be too close to the house, and then she said something like, "I hope they dump some water on those coins because they must be hot."

I don't believe many DVD players operate through a TV set's tuner. If you want to reach people in an area that they don't care or think about, you have to be very direct. Telling someone that their TV won't work is very direct! Saying there won't be anything to receive is not direct and won't get the point across!